O’s STADIUM DEAL? NOT SO FAST: Thursday night’s electric announcement on the scoreboard that there was a deal to keep the Orioles playing at the state-owned Camden Yards for at least “THE NEXT 30 YEARS” was widely interpreted as saying a new lease had been signed. But the morning after, with fans still shaking confetti out of their hair after the team clinched its division, officials from the team and Gov. Wes Moore’s administration clarified: The deal is a “memorandum of understanding” between the tenant O’s and their state landlord that was not legally binding. Jean Marbella/The Baltimore Sun.
- A final deal including a legally binding lease is not yet inked. Instead, sources inside both the administration and the team acknowledge that what was announced was a memorandum of understanding in which both parties agreed on a framework for a deal with lawyers to flesh out the complete details — possibly by the end of the year. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
CHOUDHURY RESIGNS OCT. 6; TO BECOME SCHOOL BOARD ADVISOR: State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury will resign as the state’s public schools leader Oct. 6, but the next day become a full-time senior adviser for the State Board of Education. A joint statement released Friday from the board and Choudhury explains that he will provide “expert-level advice, guidance and recommendations” on education policies, strategies and priorities, such as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
CIVIL SUITS AGAINST CATHOLIC CHURCH EXPECTED AS NEW LAW TAKES EFFECT: A wave of civil lawsuits is expected to hit Maryland courthouses Monday, as a law takes effect that gives child sex abuse victims expanded rights to sue institutions that harbored their attackers. The act takes effect Oct. 1 along with several others across the region, including tougher gun laws in Maryland Erin Cox, Fredrick Kunkle and Michael Brice-Saddler/The Washington Post.
BALTIMORE ARCHDIOCESE FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY: America’s oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for bankruptcy Friday, a move designed to limit its liability against potential damages and conserve its assets, ahead of a mountain of soon-to-be filed lawsuits connected to its history of child sex abuse. Lee O. Sanderlin/The Baltimore Sun.
WHAT ASSETS WILL THE DIOCESE CLAIM? With civil suits looming, America’s oldest Catholic diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections Friday, a move to conserve the church’s assets and limit liability. That means the diocese’s assets — its cash, investments and, most importantly, its property — will be used to pay off the victims turned creditors. Its bankruptcy petition stated the church has between $100 and $500 million in assets against potential liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion. It also restricts any further state lawsuits. Lee O. Sanderlin and Jonathan M. Pitts/The Baltimore Sun.
JUDGE LIMITS PORTION OF NEW HANDGUN CARRY LAW: A federal judge limited portions of a law restricting where people with licenses to carry handguns Friday, only two days before it will be enacted. “This is a huge win for the Second Amendment and for all law-abiding firearms owners in Maryland,” House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy said in a statement. “This decision is also a vindication for the members of our Caucus who fought so hard to defeat this bill.” Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
- The Maryland Gun Safety Act of 2023 prevents gun owners from taking firearms into schools, hospitals, government buildings, businesses selling alcohol or cannabis, stadiums, museums, racetracks, and video lottery facilities. Tommy Tucker of Capital News Service/MarylandReporter.com.
- The law largely takes effect, limiting the ability to carry guns at a litany of public places, including museums, health care facilities, school grounds, parks, mass transit facilities, government buildings, stadiums, race tracks, amusement parks and casinos. Danielle Gaines/Maryland Matters.
- New laws regulating guns, where to carry them and how to store them take effect Sunday as Maryland continues to grapple with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that upended the state’s former rules. Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
WHAT’s BEHIND FEDERALSBURG’s ELECTION OF BLACK COUNCIL MEMBERS: Small-town elections where just a few hundred people cast ballots typically don’t get much outside attention. But Tuesday’s vote in Federalsburg, a 200-year-old enclave of about 2,800 people in Caroline County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, made history as residents elected the town’s first Black council members. Joe Heim and Erin Cox/The Washington Post.
LYNCHINGS STILL HAUNT MARYLAND COMMUNITIES: Michele Gregory says the city of Salisbury should have long ago atoned for the lynching of three Black men between 1898 and 1931. For the better part of the year, she has helped lead a City Council effort to write an apology to the descendants of those men. It is one of many efforts around the state to confront the reality that more than 6,500 Black Americans were lynched in the United States between 1865 and 1950. At least 38 were lynched in Maryland. John John Williams/The Baltimore Banner.
HARFORD SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS LIST ‘INAPPROPRIATE’ BOOKS: At last week’s school board meeting, Harford County Board of Education Vice President Melissa Hahn named six books in county schools that she and other parents have deemed inappropriate. Her remarks were a response to parents and community leaders who shared their concerns about the formation of a new book review committee at the Sept. 11 board meeting. Katia Parks/The Aegis.
HIGHER ED BOARD DENIED MOST ACADEMIC DEGREE PROPOSALS: As a Maryland legislative work group continues to consider how to reform a sometimes-adversarial approval process for academic degree programs at state-supported colleges and universities, the scope of their review has become clearer. Its commissioners approved six of 15 academic degree proposals in hearings that were held between October 2018 and September of this year. They denied the remaining nine. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
MO CO COUNCIL PUSHES PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: The 11 members of the Montgomery County Council pushed Montgomery County Public Schools leaders to release an investigative report into allegations of sexual misconduct by a principal and grilled Superintendent Monifa McKnight and school board President Karla Silvestre during an Education & Culture Committee hearing Thursday. Elia Griffin/MoCo 360.
